Pranab to step down as finance minister on 26 June

New Delhi: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will step down on 26 June, rather than the previously expected 24 June, as he prepares to stand in July’s presidential election, a senior member of the ruling Congress Party told Reuters said late on Thursday.

Mukherjee, who has held the post since 2009, is leaving at a time when Asia’s third-largest economy is taking a battering by a slowing pace of economic growth, policy gridlock in government, inflation, and sluggish investment.

Mukherjee’s successor has not yet been announced, but bureaucrats and politicians suggest Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take over the portfolio until a Cabinet reshuffle next month.

Mukherjee, 76, has withdrawn from the daily work of government, the source said. On Thursday, he was to chair a panel on the sales price for a 2G radio wave auction, but he deferred the meeting. He is unlikely to meet industrialists on Monday, the source said, referring to another planned event.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has postponed a visit to India which had been scheduled for 27-28 June.

Mukherjee, who enjoys wide cross-party support, is almost certain to win the 19 July poll for the presidency, a largely ceremonial position.